Taymouth residents question pipeline plan

A proposed pipeline is leaving some Taymouth Township residents anxious about contaminated water flowing underneath their homes.

Waste Management and The People's Landfill in Birch Run has asked the Taymouth Township Board of Trustees for permission to install a forced main sewer line that could run through Taymouth Township to the wastewater treatment plant in Genesee County.

The high-density plastic pipe would sit 5 to 8 feet underground and transport leachate, a liquid that seeps through landfills, about eight miles.
The proposal would affect about 67 residents on Rathbun and Marshall. Now, trucks transport the leachate.

The Taymouth Township Board and the township attorney, along with representatives from Waste Management and officials from the Genesee and Saginaw county drain commissioner offices were a part of a hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Taymouth Township Hall, 4343 E. Birch Run.

Waste Management officials said the project could cost about $2 million. They said transporting leachate by sewer line is safer than transporting it by truck.

Jack Rogers of Taymouth Township, 61, and his wife Kathy Rogers, 55, were among a large group of residents at the meeting who strongly opposed the proposal.

The retired Saginaw School District teacher worried about the long-term effects of the pipe on the environment.

"I'm worried about what will happen in the next 10 to 15 years," said Rogers, who retired in 2005. "The pipeline could eventually leak over time into someone's property or contaminate soil."

He also worried whether installing the pipes would require the removal of trees in his front yard.

Under the proposal, Waste Management would cover the cost of the project, and the Saginaw County Department of Public Works would maintain it. Officials said the engineering design, which could take more than a year to plan, would allow minimal disturbances to the ground.

The board has not set a date on whether to accept or reject the proposal.